A Guide to Shonen Filler Movies

one of the stories I still remember from my experience at Anime Expo 2018 was hearing about fans waiting in line for the my hero Academia 2 heroes Premiere ax is Infamous for its long lines but that year was especially bad because the convention happened to take place during a brutal California Heatwave people showed up like 6 hours before the panel was even scheduled to start just to ensure they could see this movie on the big screen with their friends and as someone who chose not to attend that screening I couldn't grasp that dedication for the longest time I couldn't imagine being that excited for Glorified filler that might sound harsh and it definitely was a negative assumption at the time but even if we set aside judgments of quality which I will delve into later the term filler specifically was a suitable comparison just as anime only arcs will introduce new characters in plot lines in a self-contained package that has little impact on the main story generally speaking the same holds true for these Productions they might not serve the purpose of filling time within the adaptation itself but in basically every other way they are Standalone filler side stories with that in mind it's easy to see why I would have been so dismissive during that convention maybe I would have stood in line for hours during a heat wave to see an anime movie with my friends in fact I had my own similar story a year later when I watched the promir premiere but that was an original property from an claimed director not a trashy cash grab tie-in I'd never go so far for a movie like that not when there's precedent to suggest the story won't even be above average but for the people who did make it into that ax showing I'm sure the community aspect of the experience made it worthwhile despite my objections that's probably the ideal way to engage with these projects get some friends together and have fun with it if it's good you can all get hyped and if it's bad you can laugh about it there doesn't have to be anything beyond a surface level not everyone is a YouTuber who will dedicate a chunk of their life to breaking down how these movies are designed plus the convention anecdote was a bit of an extreme example most people would just be watching these at home and even in a theater lines normally wouldn't be that long those people at ax were crazy nah if anything I'm the real fool y'all might have casually watched a couple of these films and moved on with your life but not me I decided I'd try re-evaluating my stance and to do that I watched not quite everything but much more than the average person and that took way more than 6 hours I hope you're ready for a journey cuz I sure wasn't [Music] so just where did this trend begin serialized media receiving some sort of theatrical content is hardly A New Concept of course but even looking strictly at anime Studios like toi animation and Mushi production had been making movie retelling of their ongoing properties as early as the 1960s whether that involved combining a few scattered episodes or condensing the entire plot tended to vary but regardless that's not quite the same as an original storyline that approach didn't become codified until the 7s and it didn't begin with animation either it actually traces back to tokus satu a style of liveaction media that focused primarily on practical special effects the impact of toku in anime extends far beyond this particular ular instance from Individual creators taking inspiration from shows like Ultram man and Super Sentai to production staff such as script writers and voice actors taking roles in both two entire franchises incorporating common toku elements as part of their Foundation to name a few examples much like with anime there were several tokusatu titles that adapted television material into a theatrical format but it wasn't until common rider versus Shocker in 1972 that a TV series received an original tyin movie this opened the floodgates for properties such as Ultram man Super Sentai and others that would cement the trend alongside common rider throughout the decade by the time the 80s rolled around it was only natural that a growing anime industry would mirror this trend in the case of toe company they already had experience marketing their tokusatu properties alongside their animated Works through the toi manga Matsui a children's Film Festival that began in the 1960s from TV episodes of Sally The Witch to Digimon Adventure to a collection of tokusatu screenings to even a re-release of Disney's 101 Dalmations the to manga Matsui featured iconic work from multiple Studios and remained prominent in different incarnations until 2002 this Film Festival served as a launching pad for the other notable shift at TOA animation in the early 1980s a blossoming relationship with shua and their manga magazine weekly shown and jump during this time weekly shown and jump was still years away from the golden age that would make it the most popular weekly shown in magazine and while jump manga had been adapted into animation as early as 1969 the concept of the long running jump adaptations we know today wasn't codified yet it may have been done before but it wasn't the standard that all began to change in 1981 with the adaptation of Dr slump in a curator gag manga that would give key figures at Jump experience in how to oversee an anime adaptation besides running for 5 years outpacing its source material and spawning a handful of movies Dr slump had a tremendous impact on how toy animation would engage with the magazine and though the adaptation was deemed unsuccessful in the eyes of toriyama's editor Kazo teshima it nevertheless led the charge for other jump properties to be cross-promoted alongside it like Kuman in 1984 other non- jump adaptations shown in or otherwise produced outside of toe such as a yatsura and the almighty Dorimon are likewise notable in pushing the trend forward but I call attention to the Aral Chan kikan cross promotion for a few reasons the first and most obvious is that I have a history of covering shown in battle anime and manga between scripted videos on this channel and years of podcasts discussing material that spans Decades of publication so while other genres and demographics have their own defining franchises with their own unique Styles I'm not the person who can do those titles Justice the second and more important reason is that long running Shonen franchises have maintained the trend of consistent theatrical tie-ins in large part due to their length after all a production committee likely won't continue to Greenlight promotional films if there's no original product to continue promoting before Dr slump there weren't many properties boasting episode counts in the hundreds to the point of receiving a handful of films but following its success were other juggernauts like The aformentioned Kuman Fist of the North Star St seya slam dunk and many others Chief among them being airat toyama's other hit Monga we even got what could be seen as a neat passing of the torch moment when on December 20th 1986 2 years after initially sharing the stage with AAL Chan Kuman unveiled its seventh and final film alongs inside the first of many installments to be given the title Dragon Ball for some people the first franchise that comes to mind regarding Shon in movies would be Dragon Ball Z and yes I specifically mean z in this context early Dragon Ball did receive three movies of its own which is hardly a number to sneeze at but those films were constructed completely differently like many titles before it the Original Trilogy of Dragon Ball films were retellings of existing material albeit with their own unique Creative Vision curse of the blood rubies is the search for the Dragon Balls Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle is uh lunches introduction and mystical Adventure is get ready two tournament arcs and the Red Ribbon Army Saga the same is true of path to power the fourth project to be promoted under the original Dragon Ball name though that film came out after the end of DBZ's TV broadcast naturally there are original characters and narrative beats mixed in so that the manga content can still function as a self-contained movie but they aren't outright movie exclusive plot lines this approach has its own pros and cons depending on the content on the one hand since movies operate on a totally different production schedule than a TV series The Art and animation quality is almost guaranteed to be a step above pair that with a story arc that fans are nostalgic for and the result is a satisfactory Montage of hit moments future material can even be added retro actively to better emphasize particular moments or characters a good example of that is gintama's Ben zakura film which includes a flashback of gintoki and shoyo that didn't come up until several arcs later it fits both the content and pacing of the film by offering a deeper perspective on gintoki's character within that self-contained format and because Benny zakura is such a short Arc occupying just four TV episodes and nine manga chapters there's room to add material without any major omissions very rarely is that the case however one piece's episode of alabasta restructures a few details in a way I enjoyed like including a piece of Robin's backstory to fill out her role but my reaction was mostly defined by observing what was cut this is all too understandable when you consider that alabasta was a massive Arc that paid off a saga of storylines the TV series spent 39 episodes on it the manga 63 chapters so the writers had to cut material for it to fit a 90-minute screenplay for shown in battle stories that's a far more likely outcome which is why these retellings can sometimes feel like speedruns or highlight reels this is what makes the movie exclusive plot line so distinct by comparison they at least present the prospect of new content albeit with their own strengths and weaknesses most of the initial 13 DBZ films follow the same formula to the letter introduce a new antagonist for the characters to fight have have a big fight scene it's that simple sometimes there are minor villains who get their own separate fights sometimes the big bad has connections to a Canon character there are variations in how the formula is presented but fundamentally they're pretty similar that's not a qualitative statement as fans have varying opinions on Which films stand above the others but rather an observation of a specific structural approach what distinguishes each movie from the next is not the protagonists but the antagonists they are the ones who carry the narrative weight and if there's a theme or character Arc to be found it runs through them Cooler's hubris garlic Junior's greed Goku and the Gang serve as counterpoints to these Concepts so even if they don't develop as characters they can factor into the arcs of their enemies to turn that into a more qualitative statement the formula isn't inherently worthless even if some of the results can be generic a quick look at the unload localized titles shows how unspecific a number of these projects were conceptualized to be a super decisive battle for Earth the incredible strongest versus strongest Galaxy at the brink the super incredible guy ah yes the super incredible guy not to be confused with any of the other average incredible guys none of them have ever put the Galaxy at the brink before that said just because the DBZ movies had some generic premises doesn't mean that they or other properties couldn't make a story centered around a film exclusive antagonist work I mean hell Broly was such a popular side character that Dragon Ball super reimagined him so clearly some things worked let's say you want a little more out of your movie leads though another way to write a script like this is to introduce not just an original villain but an original protagonist as well since these movies are non-canon and thus unable to make much if any meaningful permanent changes to the main cast the addition of a new character who can actually progress offers a wider range of stories that can be told this keeps the core players in a similar role only instead of contrasting the enemy they become a pivotal influence on the protagonist's ideals as well as a force through which those ideals are carried out the only DBZ movies to actually take this approach are Movie 3 Tree of Might and movie 13 Wrath of the dragon and that Al makes them stand outs from the rest neither Icarus nor tapon would be considered the main character of their respective films but they each form a dynamic with a pre-existing member of the cast and play pivotal roles in the stories that unfold they might not develop much as characters between their arrival and departure but they give these Journeys a bit more weight when it comes time to punch the bad guy because while their additions may have distinguished the journey to the climax the general focus on Goku and the Gang during the final battle remains intact I mean Goku's got to do the dragon fist it's on the poster it's in the original title there's got to be a dragon fist they marketed the movie on a technique that gets a minute of screen time fortunately for this project just as things didn't begin with dragon ball they didn't end with Dragon Ball either other examples of this structure include bleach memories of nobody Hunter Hunter Phantom Rouge the first two my hero Academia movies a bunch of One Piece films and so on my personal favorite iteration on this formula is Naruto since the concept of an action hero imparting his will on another character Falls right in line with to no Jutsu this means that most installments can easily capture the spirit of the main story a feat which other franchises can struggle to replicate though regarding those original characters an interesting shift happens over time for the first three movies the protagonists are a gated older on woman a young boy and a fatherson Duo but after the time skip suddenly the shipin installments feature female leads who all have varying degrees of a romantic undercurrent with the knucklehead ninja shipot in the movie even ends with a joke where the main girl asks want to help me pass on my power to the next Priestess the other characters blush in the background but Naruto the adorable goof is like sure I'll help you I understand why this wasn't the case for the projects where Naruto was a literal child although he's still only like 16 here but I'm amused by the sudden shift I don't know who it's shua or Studio Pierro was responsible for this maybe the screenplay writer maybe the director maybe Kishimoto himself but were they trying to convince viewers that Naruto is a heartthrob did they really think they could just brainwash the audience into projecting onto their self-insert movie characters or onto Naruto himself self oh God I'm becoming a bad media critic make it stop make it stop I've been at this script for too long but I don't care about these original characters some people might object if I'm going to watch a movie from a series I like I want to see some recognizable faces well conveniently enough there's one more approach on rare occasions the creative team will scoff at the notion that they can't impact the source material and choose an already established figure as the main lead this might not sound too dissimilar from the first format I discussed but the key difference in my eyes is the attempt to challenge something within the protagonist beyond their battle strength they're not just fighting the antagonist they're also fighting themselves as an example the second bleach film diamond dust Rebellion centers on popular side character toshiro hitsugaya as he confronts a spectre from his past he cuts everyone off and tries to atone for this Grudge himself but in the the end Ichigo convinces him to accept the help of others drawing parallels to his own Journey with grief so while yes the villain of the story does get defeated in a climactic showdown the way he reflects on heug guay's character isn't static even if it's a slight change slight enough as to not be mentioning in the anime proper hitsugaya does change during the film some more distinct instances of this style would be the second Gintama movie and Naruto road to ninja in both the big bad isn't a new character but rather a warped mirror image of the hero that exists in an alternate reality the former plays with time travel while the latter uses again Jutsu escal usion the Gintama example likewise Builds on gintoki's tendency to carry all his burdens himself while road to ninja examines what life would be like if Naruto and Sakura's roles were reversed it's an interesting film and it embodies is a potential drawback to this type of Storytelling to tell the narrative it wants to tell and develop the cast as it sees fit character aggression is very much a thing Sakura's familial Conflict for instance felt more in line with her part one characterization then part two it's not quite a selfish orphan level of backtracking but her making light of Naruto's upbringing to any degree was a character flaw that got ironed out fairly early into the series then again because this is a shipin movie that also works with Naruto's perspective on family I'm not sure how the writers could have made this work at an earlier point in the timeline and that thought process relies on what is probably a false assumption that they would have had the freedom to adjust those details in the first place character designs special abilities and plot details must at least to some extent reflect and promote the ongoing anime material because again that's what these movies are first and foremost created to do in some cases they even foreshadow new techniques from the manga that haven't gotten adapted to anime yet like when Goku does a false Super Saiyan transformation in Lord Slug or when Luffy uses an unofficial Gear 2 in the giant mechanical soldier of caruri Castle these examples also highlight a recurring narrative element plot recycling this can be similar to the retellings I mentioned before but the act of repurposing material can be a bit broader and looser in application for instance the first Dragon Ball movie might have an original antagonist and a few other new elements but the main point of the film is to retell the opening Arc of the manga in contrast the driving force of Hunter Hunter Phantom Rouge is its original narrative some of that material like kila's conflict with his older brother seems derived from his character Arc in the main series but calling it a reimagining of any particular story arc is just incorrect the Phantom troop is there but nothing else about the film imitates York new kila's development is reminiscent of Chima and but it's obviously not that either so where does one draw the line between a bit of plot Recycling and a full-on retelling how many changes need to be made by my own logic couldn't the mishmash of arcs in the Third Dragon Ball movie be deemed too unfaithful to depict the story arcs it borrows from my answer is that plot recycling less as a separate category and more so a storytelling tool that overlaps these different structures oh and in case this needs clarifying the implication isn't that plot recycling is an inherently bad thing between all the movies I watched there were plenty of original stories that failed to hook me whereas the more derivative Phantom Rouge was pretty all right so we've outlined potential story structures but what about the contents Within if there's a trend surely that trend has spawned some tropes well for starters there's the obligatory series recap for people who might not be familiar with the main story the goal is to promote the franchise to a wider audience after all so it's important to include all the necessary context for new viewers to understand this involves reintroducing the cast and flashing back to foundational moments but it has to be done quickly and simply to avoid bogging things down to the point where newcomers can only get the most basic idea of who these people are like in the first Kuman movie after the bad guys fight sugaru and kidnap his girl the other Cho jeene just show up immediately were they standing off screen watching their friend get beaten up were they stuck in traffic the image is funny to think about but what were they doing how did they know he needed help so soon it was so bizarre seeing things play out that straightforwardly with no attempt to explain anything but clearly the formula hadn't become a formula yet otherwise the writers would have approached it the same way basically every film following it does with some kind of reasoning here it's just taken for granted they're there because they're popular in the source material and let's not forget that fans of the original will be watching along too hence why these movies are also full of equally obligatory cameos from the main series can't have a Bleach movie without the go 13 it's not Hunter Hunter if Hoka isn't there the intent is to strike a balance to offer a highlight reel to season viewers while at the same time appealing to a broad audience but the result sort of alienates everyone in one way or another if you don't recognize the cameos you're just watching randos jump in and out of conflicts with next to no explanation and if you're already a devoted fan you have to put up with all the rehashed exposition not to mention risk seeing your favorites outright mischaracterized in one piece the cursed holy sword for example Zoro turns on the straw hats to align with a childhood friend for the majority of the movie completely ignoring the fact that Zoro is Luffy's best friend and the last person who would even think of betraying the crew on top of that he refers to Sanji by name something which he has never done in Canon over 25 plus years of serialization I don't like that this split between catering to newcomers while also appeasing Die Hard fans presents a conflict of interest that exists in all of these movies to some extent they live and die by the name they're attached to beyond that is the complicated case of continuity most of the time anime original content in a TV series must fit into a relatively clear sequence to avoid breaking the linear path of the source material filler movies often take a much looser approach there will be nods to whatever is most relevant like new fighting techniques or story events but that doesn't imply that the story will make any attempt to fit the chronology most often this will involve ripping a selection of characters from whatever they currently have going on and dropping them into the same scenario doesn't matter if they're in different locations or locked in the middle of an ark alive or dead those Concepts aren't relevant in the movie World plot holes don't think about it some fans enjoy speculating about how these projects could fit into an ultimate timeline of their respective properties which is an interesting creative experiment but I've personally never gotten much out of that save a few [Music] laughs wait did you just leave kite to the ants additionally while there are instances of the original mangaa having input on these projects even cases where they wrote the screenplay themselves like with batt Battle of Gods and boruto Naruto the movie The General story structure of those maintained parallels to ones written by other creatives it's worth distinguishing between the two and giving credit where it's due but there's also Merit to including those projects in the conversation for example in the borto movie two villains appear to wreak havoc for the majority of the film but during the final battle they fuse into a single Ultra powerful being yes Kishimoto was involved with the script but this particular plot development is one that can be found in numerous other works where the original Creator had little involvement the concept of fusions and Transformations didn't originate in the movies of course but how they're utilized as well as the frequency of their usage is worth noting many of the older franchise films were less than an hour long which I'd imagine limited the range of options for late game plot twists it doesn't help that so many of these antagonists stand on the sidelines for for most of the runtime which spoils any chance to establish a progressive Arc so to keep things streamlined they could simply make the antagonist more powerful something that also works to keep emphasis on the action the same can be seen in a movie like boruto so even if it could be considered Canon it's easy to draw comparisons to the non-canon material that came before it Jutsu kaisen zero is a similar case written prior to the serialization of jiujitsu kaisen under the name Tokyo Metropolitan curse technical school the manga was originally a prototype that would later be rebranded as a prequel this format puts the story it tells in a unique position as it can be considered either an introduction to the manga as a whole or its own Side Story the same holds true for the animated version but the key difference between the two is that the jiujitsu kaisen Zero movie was adapted after season 1 had already aired so where the manga would not have alluded to events that hadn't been written Yet the movie fully expects at least some viewers to know the material in most of these works the perspective character is the protagonist of the main series which makes Exposition and character reintroductions information they should already know feel more arbitrary jiujitsu kaisen zero is a prequel though and the character it follows UTA is meeting this world for the first time so regardless of which version you're experiencing or in what order this story structure necessitates a reintroduction to the setting in key characters because UT's perspective is that of a newcomer the movie's prequel structure then serves to play on those experienced viewers expectations and recontextualize content rather than simply regurgitate it be it spotlighting different sides of characters exploring untouched details of the setting or foreshadowing future events the movie even adds in cameos for season 1 characters that don't appear in its manga counterpart like the Kyoto students it's a Canon plotline that fully utilizes the pre-established structure of filler movies to its advantage that's part of why I've reversed course on my stance from the beginning of this video though I certainly wasn't the only person of the mindset that these films weren't worth watching due to their non-canon nature sure there are instances where the absence of the original Creator in the production leaves a tangible negative impact on the the end result but that isn't always the case by prioritizing what's Canon over what isn't the actual creative process Behind these projects gets thrown aside and that just misses the point of what art is about there's a difference between engaging with a work and breaking down its components to assess how they all contribute or fail to contribute to the greater ho and impersonally checking a filler guide to avoid what doesn't qualify some might then suggest that that the movies should be Canon and point to adaptations like mugan train or Gintama the final as examples the former became the highest grossing film in Japan's history so that idea definitely works you know what else made Japan's top 10 box office earnings this decade one Piece Film red a story that falls more in line structurally with the Standalone film original narratives that preceded it these movies are not creatively bankrupt when they're not canon these movies do not have to be manga adaptations to be entertaining or financially successful approaching a disconnected Side Story with an unwavering stance that it has to contribute something to the main plot that the main character needs to develop and be influenced in some way by the events that unfold is just subjecting it to a framework it's not even trying to match you're under no obligation to enjoy these movies when they don't offer an experience you're looking for but if your standards are as simple as B Cannon of course those expectations aren't going to be met I personally find the aformentioned recurring elements interesting for the through line they provide because even if I can point out an overarching structure that structure is still just a small part of the process each franchise has its own unique style and each film has its own message moreover the staff who worked on these projects all contributed their own Creative Vision That Was Then mapped onto this framework so in a way I feel like understanding the formula gives me a better appreciation for the spirit of each installment I know some people will see the similar plot beats and call the stories identical toss out the claim of lazy or cliched writing and move on but that feels like such a surface level observation it's similar to how actual Shonen battle narratives are criticized for adhering to tropes without any consideration for how or why those trop tropes are implemented the iterative nature is part of the ethos of not just the work in question but also in how previous Works inspired it the movies are able to push this idea forward in a way that Canon content can't because even if anime Productions involve more creative input than just the original mangaa they still work primarily around the framework of the Manga tyin Movies present an opportunity to construct a story separate from that framework and that creative environment can produce fun results basically it's fanfiction stories connected to an existing property written and produced from the perspective of artists who didn't make the source it operates on a much bigger scale compared to what the average individual might Post online but that doesn't prevent it from depicting a similarly unfiltered display of influence the most notable example of this Factor the specific film that motivated me to pursue this script in the first place is one piece Movie 6 Baron omatsuri in the secret Island what makes Baron omatsuri so special in my eyes is that it's tied to a franchise that matches the ethos of the director working on it mamaru hosa's own films later specialize in familial narratives so watching him put his own spin on a series that itself foregrounds a strong theme of found family lends insight to the experience not just that but the character designs the backgrounds the use of color it's all so distinct from any other one piece media and you can often only get such a strong stylistic contrast from an isolated project similarly one Piece Film red uses music to distinguish itself from the rest of the franchise which offers a unique method of characterization storytelling and presentation some might see the fanfit comparison as if I'm calling it amateurish or something but that's not what I'm implying at all fanfic is a creative outlet with its own utility and appeal just like any other and the same holds true for Shonen movies I have for the most part until this point looked at these films from a writing perspective with only passing mentions of visuals and production kind of like most of my videos huh [ __ ] it new channel Arc mathwiz talks about anime production and videos quote me on it do not quote me on it during this script I've mostly written off these films as ignorable at worst because unlike TV series filler they have no impact on the original adaptation or Source material however the concern of tiin projects pulling resources away from and thus degrading the quality of an ongoing anime is not an unfounded one the most notable example of such a scenario would be Dragon Ball Z which saw an increase from one movie a year to two starting in 1990 following that the animation teams working on the movies were credited less often in the TV series so it can be reasonably assumed that their efforts were being redirected to the movies which also shortened the turnaround time for other studios in that production rotation as they had to take on more work in this case one could understandably call the existence of the films a burden on the franchise's quality if they didn't exist the TV series would have received more time and care and maybe that would have made the visual presentation even better right that's definitely something I used to assume universally without doing any research but is that always or even often the case and if so are the movies actually the source of the problem the landscape of the anime industry has changed considerably between 1990 and 2020 and it's important to consider both how the production process has evolved in that time along with the continued prominence of flawed working conditions Shonen franchises aren't cranking out two films a year like they used to at least so that's a plus the endlessly ongoing adaptations of old aren't all that feasible anymore or desirable depending on who you ask but one thing they were generally effective at was keeping the core staff together it's how the one piece anime has people like katsumi tooro or kazuya hisada who have been with the project essentially from day one with little work elsewhere the more common practice nowadays for works like my hero Academia is the seasonal approach and while that might lead to a more tightly paced adaptation of the story it doesn't necessarily pay this staff any better when animators aren't being paid a living wage for their efforts they're forced to do more or just burn out from the industry entirely you know if they don't die from overw work first the movies while attached to the main anime serve as a separate opportunity one team of animators handle the TV broadcast while a second team of animators produce the films with each project on its own unique schedule this sometimes leads to an influx of artists who were previously unaffiliated with a franchise guys be it for key animation storyboarding or something else Hunter Hunter the last mission for example was directed by KIRO kawaguchi he hadn't worked on the anime before this and he didn't work on the anime afterwards likewise there can be a degree of Staff overlap between the two with some artists predominantly shifting their focus from TV to film sometimes the departure or reduced contributions of those artists can cause a shift in the visual style or consist y of the TV adaptation as is visible in the Frieza Arc of DBZ and that's why certain anime fans condemn the movies for existing at all they assume a direct correlation between a movie's production and a downgrade in the TV animations quality it's a line of thought that presents a clear problem with a clear solution and the Simplicity of that is easy to latch on to unfortunately that Simplicity creates a barrier between Shonen discourse and the industry at Large one that fails to address the many other problems that plague anime production as a whole from Studios handling multiple projects at a time to mismanaged production schedules to animator shortages the reality is far too nuanced for a single correction to fix it's not that the movies can't have a negative impact on the production but rather that they're a small part of a broader management issue so by throwing all the blame on the movies the forest gets missed for the trees while Dragon Ball Z's development did appear to suffer alongside the initial jump from one movie to two in 1990 it eventually rebounded once those absences in the production pipeline were filled all while the twice yearly movies were still ongoing that doesn't justify the corporate greed and callous management that placed an unnecessary strain on their staff but that aside if the movies were the core problem there shouldn't have been an animation rebound right my hero Academia received received similar criticism from fans that also oversimplifies a complex situation they falsely assumed that if the movies didn't split the staff into two separate teams all that Talent or at least the most experienced animators would instead be used to make the manga adaptation better in theory you could have a system where the TV series is given a healthier production cycle that could allow animators more opportunities to contribute both to it and the time projects but that's not the anime industry we have in reality if the team producing the movies didn't have those projects to animate there's a high chance they'd be taking work for completely different shows heck some of the people on the movies have already contributed to other anime remember gacha Yuki Hayashi the chief animation director for Heroes Rising along with utaka Nakamura and a few others credited for key animation also worked on that music video among others things I could give countless examples of key animators CGI directors character designers all of them working on one franchise project contributing work to something else and then returning to the franchise in the same or similar roles likewise I could give similar examples of Staff leaving the franchise to work on other projects if you're concerned about big names leaving your favorite TV anime to the point where you blame those other projects I have to question if you know how creative jobs operate artists improve their skills over time and as a result their efforts might get recognized and rewarded with bigger production roles so while yes a talent like Yuki Hayashi might have been absent from mha season 5 to work on world Heroes mission that opened the door for other animators to step up and progress their careers if the movies weren't there sure maybe those artists could spend that time on the TV series instead but maybe they get sh shuffled into another project the studio is working on maybe they leave the franchise entirely and work on a different feature film maybe they go do chocolate ads or tokusatu depending on what their position is sometimes people want to Branch out and try something new sometimes they want a larger presence in the creative process if a Shonen franchise doesn't present the opportunity something else will mamaru HOSA left toy animation to make his own films had he stuck around sure maybe we could have gotten more HOSA one piece but it's because he left that we got the girl who left through time meai and other movies I've heard are good but haven't seen myself my point isn't about prioritizing what I like more it's about letting art and artists evolve over time wano wouldn't look as striking as it does if the staff hadn't changed the Dragon Ball super films Stand Out significantly due to their their willingness to experiment visually I'm not saying the average anime fan needs to turn their hobby into homework but if you're going to go out of your way to talk about production the least you could do is some basic research I've made this mistake in the past myself and even this discussion is stepping well outside of my common knowledge but at the same time it's basically the bare minimum I'm only scratching the surface here there are so many different factors to consider bottom line filler movies aren't the problem a broken industry is the problem so after picking apart the mechanics and the production the question Still Remains are these movies worth watching but my answer to that isn't a clear yes or no as it depends on a few factors for one thing I'm someone who usually doesn't have a problem with flimsy film logic if it's in service of a bigger idea I like but some people are bothered by that my case for hos as one piece might fall flat to someone who feels as though that plot forces the straw hats to act out of character on the flip side some people might care less about themes than I do so long as there's a fun fight scene so while I might write off certain action dominated films for being one-dimensional someone else might love it for that it depends not only on how the viewer feels about each particular franchise but also what they value out of that franchise I for instance would rather watch an average Naruto film than an average fairy tale film because I just like the cast and storytelling of Naruto more I also generally ended up enjoying the Naruto films based on their ability to capture the core of the series talkno Jutsu is vital to the main narrative and in the movies there's almost always an original character who Naruto serves to motivate as such his supporting role as a guard or escort in each conflict doesn't undermine the themes or appeal of his personality conversely one might think the hunter hunter films have an edge since they're connected to my favorite anime but that's an example where comparing them to the main series makes them weaker in my eyes I don't recommend you watch everything I did unless you're also overly obsessed with shown in action media but I would recommend not writing the whole concept off some of these use the tropes instru in a cool way some are just straight up good movies Beyond any formula caveats that said this isn't a why you should watch Shonen movies video if nothing I said here changed your mind that's fine what mostly brought me here was my own curiosity why did so many people go out of their way to watch my hero Academia to Heroes at an anime convention suffice to say that question led me down a deeper Rabbit Hole than I anticipated I expect to get quite a few comments along the lines of these movies are all the same or they're only enjoyable on a surface level and to an extent I agree I'd say a majority of the stuff I watched for this project ranged from decent at best to outright trash but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find a few gems buried in there sometimes simple as fun though and not every piece of media needs to be a life-changing experience at the end of the day people worked on this stuff and I don't control Trends in the industry if these films can help animators composers voice actors and other creators put food on the table then they at least deserve some of my respect worst case scenario I'll have watched a bad movie not a big deal the least I could do is give them a shot

Channel: Mathwiz

Views: 39,909

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Id: obCj6n9O5dY

Length: 44min 56sec (2696 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023